System and Method of Interactive Image and Video Based Contextual Alarm Viewing

1. An apparatus comprising: a plurality of monitoring devices, wherein at least some members of the plurality of monitoring devices include video-type cameras; control circuits coupled to the plurality of monitoring devices; at least one visual output device coupled to the control circuits; a manually operable selection element coupled to the control circuits; and a data base of events, alarms, and the plurality of monitoring devices, wherein the events, the alarms, and the plurality of monitoring devices from the data base are visually presented as a list on the at least one visual output device, wherein the control circuits, responsive to a first selection of a first one of the events, the alarms, or the plurality of monitoring devices on the list, present a first background contextual display associated with the first one of the events, the alarms, or the plurality of monitoring devices and one or more semi-transparent foreground images associated with the events, the alarms, or the plurality of monitoring devices, wherein the one or more semi-transparent foreground images are presented on the at least one visual output device overlaying the first background contextual display and wholly confined within an area of the at least one visual output device currently displaying the first background contextual display, wherein the one or more semi-transparent foreground images include text and selectable icons, wherein the control circuits, responsive to a second selection of one of the selectable icons, replace the first background contextual display with a second background contextual display associated with the one of the selectable icons and a corresponding second one of the events, the alarms, or the plurality of monitoring devices, wherein the one or more semi-transparent foreground images are presented on the at least one visual output device overlaying the second background contextual display and wholly confined within the area of the at least one visual output device currently displaying the second background contextual display, and wherein the control circuits, responsive to a user-input, initiate playback of a video clip associated with the first background contextual display or the second background contextual display and automatically remove the one or more semi-transparent foreground images from the at least one visual output device during the playback of the video clip.

2. The apparatus as in claim 1 wherein additional information, relative to the list of the events, the alarms, or the plurality of monitoring devices, is presented on the at least one visual output device.

3. The apparatus as in claim 2 wherein the first and second background contextual displays include context information.

4. The apparatus as in claim 3 wherein the first and second background contextual displays are selected from a class that includes video clips and singular screen views.

5. The apparatus as in claim 3 wherein the first and second background contextual displays are selected from a class that includes snapshot images of a portion of a monitored region and video data from the portion of the monitored region.

6. The apparatus as in claim 1 wherein the members of the plurality of monitoring devices are selected from a class that includes the video-type cameras and ambient condition detectors.

7. A method comprising: visually presenting, on a visual output device, a list of a plurality of events from a monitored region; receiving a first selection of a first one of the plurality of events from the list; presenting, on the visual output device, a first background contextual image of a first portion of the monitored region associated with the first one of the plurality of events; presenting, on the visual output device, the list of the plurality of events as semitransparent foreground event identifiers overlaying the first background contextual image and wholly confined within an area of the visual output device currently displaying the first background contextual image, wherein the semitransparent foreground event identifiers include selectable icons; receiving a second selection of one of the selectable icons; replacing, on the visual output device, the first background contextual image with a second background contextual image of a second portion of the monitored region associated with the one of the selectable icons and a corresponding second one of the plurality of events; presenting, on the visual output device, the semitransparent foreground event identifiers overlaying the second background contextual image and wholly confined within the area of the visual output device currently displaying the second background contextual image; responsive to a user-input, initiating playback of a video clip associated with the first background contextual image or the second background contextual image; and automatically removing the semitransparent foreground event identifiers from the visual output device during the playback of the video clip.

8. The method as in claim 7 further comprising scrolling through the semitransparent foreground event identifiers on top of the first contextual background image to locate the one of the selectable icons.